III. Event Represented by the Artifact/Significance
A. Emmett Louis "Bobo" Till was a 14-year-old African American boy from Chicago, Illinois
B. He reportedly whistled at a white woman.
C. The main suspects were acquitted, but later admitted to committing the crime.
D. Till's mother insisted on a public funeral service, with an open casket.
E. When the public realized that the Federal Government was not going to prosecute Till's murders, it was understood that individuals (as opposed to the federal government) would be the agents of change in the American Civil Rights Movement.
F. As a result, Till's murder was noted as one of the leading events that motivated the American Civil Rights Movement.
G. A Great Irony: Till's father was killed in WWI. One of the few possisions that was returned to Till's mother was the Senior Till's signet ring. Emmett Till brought this item with him to Mississippi and it was later used to identify the body.
IV. Dates and Places - Timeline from PBS Timeline: The Murder of Emmett Till
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/timeline/timeline2.html
A. August 20, 1955: Mamie Till rushes her son Emmett to the 63rd Street station in Chicago to catch the southbound train to Money, Mississippi.
B. August 21, 1955: Emmett Till arrives in Money, Mississippi, and goes to stay at the home of his great uncle Moses Wright.
C. August 24,1955: Emmett joins a group of teenagers, seven boys and one girl, to go to Bryant's Grocery and Meat Market for refreshments to cool off after a long day of picking cotton in the hot sun. Bryant's Grocery, owned by a white couple, Roy and Carolyn Bryant, sells supplies and candy to a primarily black clientele of sharecroppers and their children. Emmett goes into the store to buy bubble gum. Some of the kids outside the store will later say they heard Emmett whistle at Carolyn Bryant.
D. August 28,1955: About 2:30 a.m., Roy Bryant, Carolyn's husband, and his half brother J. W. Milam, kidnap Emmett Till from Moses Wright's home. They will later describe brutally beating him, taking him to the edge of the Tallahatchie River, shooting him in the head, fastening a large metal fan used for ginning cotton to his neck with barbed wire, and pushing the body into the river.
E. August 29, 1955: J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant are arrested on kidnapping charges in LeFlore County in connection with Till's disappearance. They are jailed in Greenwood, Mississippi and held without bond.
F. August 31, 1955: Three days later, Emmett Till's decomposed corpse is pulled from Mississippi's Tallahatchie River. Moses Wright identifies the body from a ring with the initials L.T.
I. Hat worn by Emmett Till
II.
III. Event Represented by the Artifact/Significance
A. Emmett Louis "Bobo" Till was a 14-year-old African American boy from Chicago, IllinoisB. He reportedly whistled at a white woman.
C. The main suspects were acquitted, but later admitted to committing the crime.
D. Till's mother insisted on a public funeral service, with an open casket.
E. When the public realized that the Federal Government was not going to prosecute Till's murders, it was understood that individuals (as opposed to the federal government) would be the agents of change in the American Civil Rights Movement.
F. As a result, Till's murder was noted as one of the leading events that motivated the American Civil Rights Movement.
G. A Great Irony: Till's father was killed in WWI. One of the few possisions that was returned to Till's mother was the Senior Till's signet ring. Emmett Till brought this item with him to Mississippi and it was later used to identify the body.
IV. Dates and Places - Timeline from PBS Timeline: The Murder of Emmett Till
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/timeline/timeline2.htmlA. August 20, 1955: Mamie Till rushes her son Emmett to the 63rd Street station in Chicago to catch the southbound train to Money, Mississippi.
B. August 21, 1955: Emmett Till arrives in Money, Mississippi, and goes to stay at the home of his great uncle Moses Wright.
C. August 24,1955: Emmett joins a group of teenagers, seven boys and one girl, to go to Bryant's Grocery and Meat Market for refreshments to cool off after a long day of picking cotton in the hot sun. Bryant's Grocery, owned by a white couple, Roy and Carolyn Bryant, sells supplies and candy to a primarily black clientele of sharecroppers and their children. Emmett goes into the store to buy bubble gum. Some of the kids outside the store will later say they heard Emmett whistle at Carolyn Bryant.
D. August 28,1955: About 2:30 a.m., Roy Bryant, Carolyn's husband, and his half brother J. W. Milam, kidnap Emmett Till from Moses Wright's home. They will later describe brutally beating him, taking him to the edge of the Tallahatchie River, shooting him in the head, fastening a large metal fan used for ginning cotton to his neck with barbed wire, and pushing the body into the river.
E. August 29, 1955: J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant are arrested on kidnapping charges in LeFlore County in connection with Till's disappearance. They are jailed in Greenwood, Mississippi and held without bond.
F. August 31, 1955: Three days later, Emmett Till's decomposed corpse is pulled from Mississippi's Tallahatchie River. Moses Wright identifies the body from a ring with the initials L.T.
V. Multimedia From the Internet
A. Interview with Professor Robin KelleyVII. Map
VIII. Curators
A. Sherry ForrestB. Chuck Baker